AMHERST -- At $60,400 for a year of tuition, room and board this fall at Amherst College, the cost of a four-year degree seems daunting.

Add in other costs - student fees ($806,) health insurance ($1,626,) books (an estimated $1,000) and travel costs for out-of-state or international students - and the cost can seem overwhelming.

When compared to tuition in 2000, $43,300 in inflation-adjusted dollars, the cost of an education seems even more expensive.

Despite the five-digit price tag, a study says the real price isn't as it appears.

The Upshot, a section of The New York Times that takes an analytical look at stories, says the price can be "deceiving."

Since 2000, in fact, financial aid has kept pace, almost dollar for dollar, with the list price. As a result, the average price that Amherst students pay is virtually unchanged — up 1 percent, in inflation-adjusted terms, to $32,400 this year — over the last 14 years. On average, Amherst isn’t significantly more expensive than it was in 2000.

Averages, of course, hide variation. To be more specific, Amherst is more expensive than it used to be for students whose families are paying the full price — and less expensive for students whose families are not. Because the price has risen for students paying full price, it has fallen for students not paying full price. For students from low-income families, Amherst can be nearly free, partly because it does not require student loans.

Full-price students tend to come from families making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Most of those families have done quite nicely in recent decades, and they can afford Amherst. For everyone else, Amherst has cut its price.

The college offers an online application to allow potential students to calculate the net price of attending the college. To see how much the cost of attendance would be for you or a member of your family, click here.